The
FA have confirmed they have asked betting companies to provide them with any
relevant information relating to John Terry's substitution on Sunday.
Terry was withdrawn and given a guard of honour in the 26th minute of
Chelsea's final Premier League game of the season as part of the club's
tributes to their long-serving defender, who will leave the club this
summer.
Sunderland, Chelsea's opponents on the day, were aware of the orchestrated
plan, which Terry has said was his idea, and the Premier League is
understood to be relaxed about the matter, which did not contravene its
rules.
Bookmaker Paddy Power accepted the bets on Terry being substituted between
26:00 and 26:59 in Sunday's match, at odds of 100-1.
At this stage, there is no evidence of any suspicious betting patterns in
the market but independent sport integrity commentator Chris Eaton says
bookmakers should have been warned ahead of the orchestrated move.
"If the manipulation of play to create the substitution and honouring
opportunity was officially sanctioned, no problem except that the sport
bookmakers should have been warned and could have avoided losses," Eaton, a
former head of security at FIFA and former head of operations at INTERPOL,
said.
"There should be no unsanctioned manipulation of the free flow of
competition permitted by the rules of the game.
"Play and competition without fail should be honest, clean and earnest."
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